Paladin of the Dead God
chapter-148

Gulping.

The creature landed on an unfortunate house. Instead of collapsing, the building flexibly absorbed the impact. With a bursting sound, the massive body spread in all directions.

The first thing the residing family noticed was a stench that seemed to rise from the sewers.

And that smell was their last.

The creature’s body quickly seeped into the building, passing through like a ghost, leaving behind only stone and furniture. Any living being it passed over dissolved into part of it.

Ooooooh!

Only upon reaching the streets did the creature start to form a proper shape. Predominantly black, it bore an indescribable eerie hue. Its form was somewhat like a quadruped bat, but its head was a misshapen mass, similar to a slug.

It was known as the Endbringer.

No one remembered who or how it got its name, but it was the apex predator among the creatures that scavenged the refuse from the bottom of Chaos.

The voice that had been calling the Endbringer was now silent. However, the place where the voice had originated still sent a disturbing sensation.

Crash! A bright bolt of lightning raced down the street, incinerating the head of the Endbringer.

The charred head vanished for a moment, then reformed into a new shape. Now, the Endbringer’s focus shifted towards the new target that had attacked it.

“Doesn’t the attack work?”

“It seems to be similar to a slime. It feels slightly less dense, though…”

Bashul observed the monster from a distance. It was about the size of a four-story building, somewhere between liquid and gas in consistency. It had appeared denser and more solid in the sky, probably due to it contorting itself to escape through the hole. But seeing that it struggled, it seemed like it had just sent whatever part of it could escape.

“It might be weaker than its main body, but miracles should still work against it.”

“Hmm.”

Waltzemer stroked Haltaba’s nape. Haltaba, sparking lightning between its horns, roared mightily, sending a bolt twice as thick as before smashing into the Endbringer’s body.

Parts of the Endbringer vanished.

However, these gaps filled back in as if water were filling a hole.

The Endbringer, undulating, twisted its body menacingly, turning its eerie eyes towards Haltaba. It harbored hostility not just towards its assailants but towards all living beings.

Whoosh. The Endbringer surged forward like the onset of night.

“Fall back!”

The soldiers quickly retreated.

They shuddered as they saw the grass and trees where the Endbringer passed dissolve cleanly away. Fortunately, the light emanating from Waltzemer’s horns hindered its approach.

Against assassins that were mere monsters or humans, the soldiers might stand a chance; but in a conflict involving mythical beings from the afterlife, there wasn’t much they could do except prevent minor creatures and spiders from encroaching with the sacred flames they bore.

Only the knights trained in miraculous combat skills were truly capable of fighting.

“Keep distracting it, Your Majesty. We will try to exploit its weakness.”

“Using the Emperor as bait?”

“He’s less noticeable than us, given all the sparkle.”

Bashul and Rene split to either side to examine the Endbringer closely. Despite their training, they were reluctant to dive into its body.

Bashul signaled Rene with hand signs when he spotted something.

Within the strange hues of the Endbringer, there was an especially dark and solid-looking area that could be its organs, or in a grotesque sense, the devil’s excrement.

Rene also saw it and prepared to move.

Haltaba’s lightning flared again. Crunch… The subsequent lightning carved holes through the Endbringer, creating less dense areas.

These gaps were daunting for ordinary people, but for Bashul and Rene, they were as wide as roads.

Without a signal, both darted forward like arrows. The mere touch of the Endbringer’s flesh was painfully searing, but not unbearable. Suddenly, an advanced sword technique known only to the Imperial Guard was activated.

Even in a vast wasteland, if there’s a needle, lightning will strike precisely there.

A physically impossible contraction of space occurred.

Their swords had already pierced the Endbringer’s internal organs before even Haltaba’s lightning could miss them. The distorted space violently expanded, causing an explosive shockwave. The Endbringer’s soft body burst outward.

The Endbringer languidly slumped down.

***

“Cough, gasp!”

Relatively inexperienced, Rene gasped for air painfully on her knees due to the backlash of using the advanced knight swordsmanship.

While Rene was catching her breath, Bashul, not yet certain it was over, did not relax his guard. As expected, the Endbringer began to twitch, attempting to pull itself back together. Bashul swiftly swung his sword, chopping up any discernible organs into small pieces.

Following this, the Endbringer moved no more.

Bashul wanted to keep watching but couldn’t stay close; the mere touch of its skin was enough to melt flesh. Even its corpse was not safe to approach.

“Let’s get out of here, Rene. The smell is atrocious…”

Just then, Bashul’s heightened senses detected a new threat right underfoot.

A tentacle burst through the ground, lifting him into the air, but he swore and cut it off instantly.

Crashing to the ground, he saw the Endbringer, already gathering its gaseous body back into a solid form.

This time, however, it was smaller and more condensed.

It retained its four-legged bat form, but now its face bore dozens of tentacles, resembling an octopus head.

While Bashul was momentarily hindered by his wounded foot, Rene, having regained some strength, quickly grabbed his nape and started dragging him away. The Endbringer, seemingly unwilling to let go, shot out tentacles in pursuit.

Even as he was dragged away, Bashul kept slicing at the tentacles.

‘This is dangerous.’

He could feel that the creature was now smaller but significantly stronger and faster. Even in perfect condition, it was a monster not to be underestimated.

Emperor Waltzemer realized the situation belatedly and was about to call for support fire when a particularly thick and fierce tentacle shot out, targeting Bashul.

Crack-crunch.

Someone intervened in the next moment.

“Isaac?!”

Isaac had wrapped the tentacle of the Apocalypse handler around his left arm and yanked it fiercely. A sound like muscles tearing apart echoed as Isaac ripped out the monster’s tentacle.

“Rene, please take that old man away quickly!”

“Thank you! I will protect the love of the Holy Grail knight!”

Isaac was about to dismiss the nonsense in confusion but decided to focus on the fight instead.

The flesh of the Apocalypse handler shimmered in a strange hue after losing its tentacle. Isaac had suspected the unusual color but was certain only upon direct contact.

‘It was indeed the color beyond.’

Isaac used the ability ‘the color beyond’ to either conceal his identity or disorient his opponents.

The Apocalypse handler was a monster made of an unknown condensed material.

Isaac had just realized that the ‘color beyond’ could act like a liquid or a solid depending on its concentration, but touching it revealed he could control it.

Isaac had a dominant control over the ‘color beyond’ entwined in his left hand.

The tentacle he had grabbed melted into Isaac’s possession instantly upon contact. The monster had instinctively felt threatened and reacted.

It growled fiercely at Isaac.

For now, Isaac took out the Luadin Key with his right hand, but planned to fight with his left. He could easily overpower it using his arm covered in the ‘color beyond’, disguised as dirtied by the Apocalypse handler’s tentacle.

‘Do not resist.’

The Apocalypse handler might be stronger than Isaac if considered alone, but hierarchically, Isaac had an overwhelming advantage. The monster roared defiantly, as its face burst forth with more tentacles.

Isaac blocked them with his left arm and swung his sword in a hurry.

The tentacle ends were covered with bones, nails, and teeth of humans it had devoured. This was something he couldn’t control with ‘the color beyond’.

“Looking stupid really is a waste of brains!”

Snap, bang.

Amidst the thrashing tentacles were not only human remnants but also those of beasts and parts of unidentifiable monsters that still wriggled. It felt like fighting undigested internal organs rather than mere tentacles, but they were ferociously alive.

From afar, Bashul thought that without using high-level swordsmanship like he had, Isaac wouldn’t be able to breach the Apocalypse handler. Yet, none of the high-level techniques Isaac knew suited this situation.

In the next moment, the Apocalypse handler spewed out tentacles crazily. Hundreds of strands, each capable of easily tearing a person apart, poured down like heavy rain.

And the ring on Isaac’s right hand shattered into several fragments.

It was a ring passed to him by Dietrich.

[Broken Crystal Tombstone Fragment (S)]

[In the Crystal Battlefield, ten thousand warriors fight in ten thousand ways, tasting victory ten thousand times and facing death as many. The tombstone mourns the warriors’ deaths, fitting their bodies into flawless motions, leading to either certain victory or death.]

Isaac’s world slowed down.

At the same time, his mind raced at an extraordinary speed. His eyes wildly calculated every possible movement, the enemy’s attack directions, probabilities of being hit, stride, and sword path.

Thump. After considering hundreds of scenarios, Isaac finally took a step.

The speed was suffocatingly slow.

It was a bizarre world.

In the original game, the Broken Crystal Tombstone Fragment slowed time and sped up the character, but this world was different. As Isaac took a breath and moved his foot, hundreds of possible outcomes flashed through his mind.

In his mental constructs, Isaac died hundreds of times and faced defeat as many times. But among thousands of scenarios, he found the one direction towards victory and took another step.

There was no room for even a minor error.

He would cut through any manageable tentacle and dodge any dodgeable attack.

As Isaac’s mind was about to burn out from the strain, the world began to flow normally again.

Suddenly, the Luadin Key was embedded in the Apocalypse handler’s head. A disgusting smell wafted through the sizzling heat.

***

Before the chaos settled, Isaac carved through the Apocalypse handler’s flesh and searched for something akin to essence.

As expected, there was something like a heart inside the monster, capable of controlling its gaseous, liquid, and solid states. Though the heart was already charred, Isaac immediately devoured it through the tentacle.

[‘Apocalypse Predation’ consumed.]

[‘Intestines of the Dead God’ perk increases absorption efficiency.]

[‘Perfect Plague Immunity’ perk acquired.]

[‘Perfect Toxic Immunity’ perk acquired.]

‘Is this what they call impervious to all poisons?’

While Isaac’s physical capabilities or miracles didn’t increase, it was a satisfactory harvest nonetheless. Devouring through the tentacles meant no poison or germ could affect him, but Isaac couldn’t afford to be careless about ingesting toxins himself.

When he had fought the plague god Zihilrat, the plague resistance accumulated within his body came directly from Zihilrat himself, allowing him to withstand it. However, facing another plague, germ, or toxin handler could be unpredictable.

[Nameless Chaos is satisfied with the newly devoured prey.]

[Chaos rewards have been granted.]

[‘The color beyond’ has been strengthened.]

[‘The color beyond’ will now possess physical strength proportional to the faith used.]

Isaac preferred these rewards much more.